Most builders look at a tenkeyless form factor and think about rows, columns, and diodes. Instead of dealing with a traditional matrix and the inevitable ghosting risks or routing headaches, Tenkeyless lives up to its name by discarding the standard matrix entirely. We are running a direct-pin, matrixless setup.

Every single switch gets its own dedicated digital runway.Hardware Breakdown & Schematic DeviationBecause a single microcontroller doesn’t boast enough GPIO pins to handle a 50-switch layout individually, the brain of this board has been split into a dual-engine configuration.The Brains: 2x Orpheus Pico microcontrollers.

The Schematic Hack: The initial design schematics used standard Raspberry Pi Picos as placeholders. The physical build swaps these out for the Orpheus Picos, maintaining the same form factor but optimizing for our specific firmware goals.The Split: * Pico Alpha: Manages Left Block (25 switches) Pico Beta: Manages Right Block + Nav Cluster (25 switches) The Wiring Topology: Pure Direct DriveWe completely bypassed the standard row/column matrix. No diodes, no multiplexers.

[Switch] ─── (Pin 1) ──────────────────────> GPIO Pin (Dedicated) ─── (Pin 2) ─── [Common Ground] ──> GND Bus

Each of the 50 switches is wired using a direct-to-ground methodology:Terminal A: Wired directly to a dedicated, individual GPIO pin on its respective Orpheus Pico.Terminal B: Tied into a massive, unified common ground bus routing back to the controller.

When a key is pressed, the GPIO pin is pulled straight to ground. The microcontroller senses the state change instantly. Input latency is theoretically limited only by the clock speed of the chips and switch debounce times.